Tom Roche BBC World Service Tapes
Similar to the model followed in the 400 Box project, this page has been created for an overview of the 98 tapes in the Tom Roche BBC World Service collection. Tapes A few notes from Tom on the tapes in his collection: The BBC World Service shows come in 3 flavors - wooshy over the air shortwave (generally 1980's) more crisp but flat satellite feed of BBC World Service (90's-00's) and then a dozen or so shows from WRAS-Atlanta FM college radio station that briefly had an agreement with BBC World Service. The latter shows sound best, but the college DJs nearly always clipped the start of the show. Tapes labelled WRAS are from this last batch, often 3 shows stacked on a 90 minute cassette. All shows are in mono. The 80s shows were recorded in Atlanta via a $900 professional communications receiver like this via BBCs Caribbean Relay on the island of Antigua that a friend (and Peel fan) owned. Even at that price, some shows are markedly low-fi, but I think it is important to save that snapshot to honor the behind-the-iron-curtain listeners who listened this way for years. My friend probably recorded every show over 10 years, but we only saved the best ones and rolled over the rest, alas. So the surviving shows are good ones. In the 90s BBC World Service was placed on a satellite channel audio subcarrier accessible to people in North America with the old big backyard dishes. There is a bit of analog hiss to these shows, and the EQ is flat as this feed was for stations to rebroadcast and apply their own EQ. (RF Note: Will try and fix this in the rip) Generally my friend with the dish would record Peel on one side of the cassette and the BBCWS Top 20 Countdown show (sometimes called "Multitrack" by the BBC.) It is your call if you want to digitize these shows also. To cover 20 songs in 30 minutes makes it a tight tidy show, and some songs are edgy outliers... but mostly it is pop "product." Still an interesting time capsules for sure. Below are all 98 tapes as listed below. This section is intended to give at an overview of tape status, plus links for information on the tapes themselves and the shows broadcast on the dates they cover. Further information will be added when known. Not all tapes are dated accurately and the show was usually repeated 3 times in a week so some dates will be rough guesses to the nearest week. Where a show already has a Wikia page I will use the same page, even though the exact broadcast date of the Tom Roche tape may have been one of the other repeats in the same week. TR001-TR098 TR001: December 1984 (BBC World Service) / 08 April 1985 (BBC World Service) / 04 January 1985 (BBC World Service) / 14 January 1985 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR002: 26 August 1985 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service Top 20 (Paul Burnett) 27 August 1985 SHARED TR003: 05 December 1984 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR004: No Peel content (Tom's Answer Phone Tape!) TR005: 03 December 1985 (BBC World Service) / 23 March 1987 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR006: 02 January 1986 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service "Two Cheers For 1985" Review SHARED TR007: 28 October 1985 (BBC World Service) / 28 February 1987 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR008: 06 November 1987 (BBC World Service) / 13 November 1987 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR009: 26 July 1993 (BBC World Service) / 23 February 1993 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR010: 10 March 1997 (BBC World Service) / 17 March 1997 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR011: 14 March 1988 BBC World Service (actually Part 2 of John Peel In Russia) / 21 March 1988 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR012: 28 May 1994 (BBC World Service) / 05 October 1992 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR013: 27 June 1988 (BBC World Service) / No Peel Content SHARED TR014: 25 September 1988 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service Top 20 (Paul Burnett) 27 September 1988 SHARED TR015: 17 October 1988 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service Top 20 (Paul Burnett) 18 October 1988 SHARED TR016: 05 December 1988 (BBC World Service) / No Peel Content SHARED TR017: No Peel Content TR018: 25 September 1989 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service Top 20 (Paul Burnett) 30 September 1989 SHARED TR019: 12 June 1989 (BBC World Service) / 19 June 1989 (BBC World Service) / 26 June 1989 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR020: 29 May 1989 (BBC World Service) / 07 August 1989 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR021: 05 November 1990 (BBC World Service) / 29 June 1992 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR022: 25 May 1991 (BBC World Service) / BBC World Service Top 20 (Paul Burnett) 04 June 1991 SHARED TR023: 03 June 1991 (BBC World Service) / 10 June 1991 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR024: 24 June 1991 (BBC World Service) / 01 July 1991 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR025: 29 August 1991 Andy Kershaw (BBC World Service) / 20 January 1992 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR026: 09 October 1989 (BBC World Service) / 09 October 1989 BBC World Service Multitrack II (Graham Bannerman) SHARED TR027: 12 August 1991 (BBC World Service) / 19 August 1991 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR028: 13 May 1991 (BBC World Service) / 20 May 1991 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR029: 14 June 1993 (BBC World Service) / August 1994 BBC World Service Multitrack II (Graham Bannerman) SHARED TR030: 10 August 1993 (BBC World Service) / 11 August 1993 Andy Kershaw (BBC World Service) / 11 August 1993 Essential Guide To Music (Mark Goodier interviews Andy Kershaw) SHARED TR031: No Peel Content TR032: 07 June 1993 (BBC World Service) / 07 June 1993 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR033: 10 August 1993 BBC World Service Multitrack III (Sarah Ward) / Duplicate of 10 August 1993 (BBC World Service) but much worse reception TR034: 05 March 1994 (BBC World Service) / 12 September 1994 (BBC World Service) / 10 October 1994 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR035: 15 October 1994 (BBC World Service) / 19 November 1994 (BBC World Service) / 17 December 1994 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR036: 01 July 1994 (BBC World Service) / blank SHARED TR037: 24 April 1995 (BBC World Service) / 24 April 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR038: 17 May 1993 (BBC World Service) / 22 August 1994 (BBC World Service) / 28 August 1995 (BBC World Service) / 28 August 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR039: September 1994 (BBC World Service) / 25 March 1995 (BBC World Service) / 01 April 1995 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR040: 07 August 1995 (BBC World Service) / 07 August 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR041: 03 December 1995 (BBC World Service) / 03 December 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR042: 18 September 1995 (BBC World Service) / 18 September 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR043: 14 May 1995 (BBC World Service) / 19 June 1995 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR044: 25 February 1995 (BBC World Service) / 20 February 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR045: 25 March 1995 (BBC World Service) (duplicate of TR039) / 03 July 1995 (BBC World Service) / 04 February 1997 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR046: 24 April 1995 (BBC World Service) (duplicate of TR037) / 29 October 1994 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR047: 20 August 1995 (BBC World Service) / 20 August 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR048: 14 August 1995 (BBC World Service) / 20 January 1996 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR049: 22 July 1996 (BBC World Service) / 29 July 1996 (BBC World Service) / 25 August 1996 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR050: 18 December 1995 (BBC World Service) / 18 December 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR051: 19 December 1996 (BBC World Service) / No Peel Content SHARED TR052: February 1996 (BBC World Service) / March 1996 (BBC World Service) / May 1996 (BBC World Service) SHARED TR053: 10 July 1995 (BBC World Service) / No Peel Content SHARED TR054: 28 January 1995 (BBC World Service) / 29 April 1997 Andy Kershaw (BBC World Service) / 28 April 1997 BBC World Service Multitrack Alternative (Claire Sturgess) SHARED TR055: 23 July 1995 (BBC World Service) / 16 July 1995 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) SHARED TR056: 08 May 1995 (BBC World Service) TR057: 30 December 1996 (BBC World Service) / 29 December 1996 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) TR058: 08 January 1996 (BBC World Service) / 07 January 1996 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) TR059: 20 April 1996 (BBC World Service) TR060: 05 August 1996 (BBC World Service) / 12 August 1996 (BBC World Service) TR061: 27 October 1996 (BBC World Service) / 10 November 1996 (BBC World Service) TR062: 19 December 1996 (BBC World Service) (Alternate complete recording of the incomplete show from TR051) / 22 December 1996 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) TR063: 29 April 1996 (BBC World Service) / 28 April 1996 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) TR064: 10 November 1996 (BBC World Service) / 09 November 1996 BBC World Service Top 20 (Tim Smith) TR065 TR066 TR067 TR068 TR069 TR070 TR071 TR072 TR073 TR074 TR075 TR076 TR077 TR078 TR079 TR080 TR081 TR082 TR083 TR084 TR085 TR086 TR087 TR088 TR089 TR090 TR091 TR092 TR093 TR094 TR095 TR096 TR097: No Peel Content TR098: Unknown Frank Zappa bootleg audience recording (No Peel Content) Category:Tom Roche BBC World Service Tapes Category:BBC World Service